Seven Guns
by bionic4ever
Summary: All OSI staffers must now carry guns, but will be a gun be what's needed to come to the rescue when a beloved cohort disappears? Thanks to Julie, for alway being a willing sounding board.
1. Chapter 1

**Seven Guns**

Prologue

Seven guns, each one loaded and aimed, jockeyed to be the first – and hopefully only – weapon fired. Seven fingers, some reluctant and some eager, were poised on seven triggers as each potential shooter was forced to weigh all of their options in one much-too-brief instant. The prisoner, certain that this moment would be their last, waited helplessly in the small cage that was suspended high in the air, in the center of the room, for fate to take its irrevocable course.

Would that first shot tear through flesh, or bionics? Would it be the prelude to a barrage of bullets, or to a symphony of silence?

_**BANG!**_

- - - - - -


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

"**No**!" Jaime declared, her arms folded emphatically across her chest, "I won't do it!"

Steve had promised Oscar that he'd try to reason with her. "It's an OSI requirement, Sweetheart," he began gently.

"I don't care; I _hate _guns!" She stomped across the living room and threw herself into her favorite over-stuffed chair. "I will _not_ carry a gun, Steve!"

"Jaime -"

"Forget it."

"It wouldn't hurt you to just learn how to use one."

"How hard is it? Point, aim, shoot. Thanks, but I can defend myself just fine without one."

"From a sniper on a rooftop?"

Jaime grimaced. "With a sniper, he'd probably get me before I knew he was there anyhow. What's your point?"

"The point is..." Steve sighed, having to take a deep breath while he remembered exactly what the original point had been. "The point is that you don't have a choice here; you can't 'opt out' of this training -"

"Watch me."

"Look, I've passed the course and I'm a certified instructor. I'll teach you myself – it'll take less than a day -"

"No."

"You'll learn how to handle a gun, how to load it -"

"_I said __**NO**_!" Jaime got up and gave new meaning to 'throw pillow' as she chucked one all the way into the kitchen before storming into the bedroom and slamming the door.

- - - - - -

Steve kept his and Jaime's appointment with Oscar by himself, the next morning. "She won't do it," he reported grimly.

"My operatives carry weapons," Oscar said. "It isn't negotiable."

"Not only did she refuse to carry one," Steve said reluctantly, "she won't even learn how to use it." He eyed the small box on the desk that held Jaime's shiny new government-issued firearm. "I can give it to her, but she might just return it to you as a useless blob of metal."

"You explained the reasoning behind it?" Oscar queried.

"For the minute or less that she was actually listening to me, yes. I wasn't about to yell through a closed door. I gave her an hour or so to cool down, then I finally went home. Oscar, I know that lady, and she ain't budging."

Oscar handed the little box to Steve. "I'm only out here until tomorrow night, and I need to go back and tell the Secretary that my entire Los Angeles faction meets our stated requirements. Steve, this is one time where you need to _make _her budge."

- - - - - -

Oscar moved efficiently through the remainder of his morning's appointments. Certifications were verified and weapons issued, where needed. He had placed Russ in charge of the Los Angeles Headquarters, and the assistant had done an admirable job. Even Rudy Wells had been certified, since he performed much of his work in OSI labs and offices. The only holdout - on either coast – was Jaime. Steve had warned Oscar in advance that Jaime was extremely anti-gun, anti-violence, and always had been. While he admired the strength of her convictions, Oscar didn't like thinking about what was likely to happen if she didn't relent and conform to the new regulation. Would the Secretary of State and Jack Hansen of the NSB understand, if Jaime had to meet with them to explain herself? Highly doubtful.

- - - - - -

_Make her budge, Oscar? _Steve mused silently as he drove to Jaime's house. _Since when have I been able to __**make **__Jaime do anything?_ The very same qualities that kept Steve so deeply in love with Jaime – her intelligence, strong will and independence – made her, at this moment, one of the most exasperating people he'd ever known. As he pulled into Jaime's driveway, he spotted a flash of blonde hair through the trees, so he parked the car and moved quickly up toward the river to find Jaime.

Her attitude had clearly changed since the previous night's argument. She was staring wistfully into the water, so deep in thought that she didn't notice his approach until he'd seated himself in the grass beside her.

"Hi," he said, very softly. "Sorry if I startled you."

"Steve, _I'm _sorry; I was such a brat last night," Jaime told him with down-turned eyes.

"I'm sure you had your reasons -"

"But you were trying to make it as easy on me as you could. I'm sorry I didn't see that."

Steve placed a gentle arm around her shoulders. He'd never known Jaime to have an irrational fear, so he knew something was behind her strong emotions. "Talk to me?" he suggested.

"I really don't like guns; they scare the hell outta me."

"Not a good thing, in our line of work..."

"No, I can face one – I _have_ faced them, more than once – I just don't wanna carry one. There's something so...irrevocable...about using them."

Steve nodded. "I understand."

Jaime was silent for a few very long seconds, then looked out at the water again, with a stoic face but eyes filled with fear. "I...don't have a choice, do I?" Steve didn't answer; he knew there was no need to. "Do you have it?"

"Yes." He slowly removed the little box from his jacket and handed it (unopened) to Jaime, who set the empty box on the ground and cradled the weapon in her hands.

After staring at it briefly, she whispered "It's already loaded." Steve nodded, surprised since – to his knowledge – she'd never handled one before. Jaime stood up and moved the pistol to her right hand, extended her arm out over the water and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit squarely in the middle of the large, dead tree on the other side of the river. Without looking back at Steve, Jaime placed the gun in her pocket. "There," she whispered. "You can tell Oscar I know how to handle a gun."

- - - - - -


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"How ugly was it?" Oscar asked when Steve handed him Jaime's weapons' certification form.

"Not at all. In fact, she kind of shocked me."

"Oh?"

"She knew her way around that gun, the minute I handed it to her. I didn't think she had any experience. Didn't wanna press my luck by asking about it, though." Steve said with a lopsided grin. "She has great aim, too."

"Good. I'll be leaving tomorrow, but you're staying out here for now, right?"

Steve nodded. "For a few days, anyway. I'd like to spend some time with Jaime. She seems to be remembering more every day."

"I'm really glad, Pal – for both of you," Oscar told him. "Oh – Rudy's flying in tonight, from Colorado. He'd like to stop by and see Jaime; you, too, if you can be there. Around 7?"

"Sure thing. It'll be good to see him again. Been awhile."

"I'll call you tomorrow, before I leave," Oscar confirmed. "And I'll try to give you and Jaime some alone time before I call and draft you again."

Steve chuckled. "Thanks."

- - - - - -

Jacqueline Rivera was unhappy, as evidenced by the flight of the file she'd been handed – straight into the wastebasket with a resounding _swish_. "This is useless to me," she hissed at the two men who'd so proudly given her what they'd thought would finally win them her praise. "Both names are blacked out! This tells me nothing I didn't already know! Without their identities, I'll never be able to admire Doctor Wells' handiwork." She paced across the room, kicking the wastebasket and upending a chair before turning back to her helpers. "_Get me their names, or get me Rudy Wells! _ And no more mistakes!"

- - - - - -

Rudy smiled as he sat down for coffee with Jaime and Steve after Jaime's check up. "We should be so healthy," he told Steve. "Young Lady," he added, turning to Jaime, "you are officially 2000 percent recovered."

"I thought I was recovered when you let me leave the hospital," Jaime said lightly.

"Well, it was the best excuse I could think of to come and see you."

Jaime shook her head, grinning at him. "Since when do you need an excuse? In fact, if you ever dare to set foot in California _without _stopping to see me, I'd never forgive you. Deal?"

"I'd listen to her, Doc," Steve added. "She can be very stubborn...I mean, strong-willed."

"No, you mean stubborn," Jaime laughed. "Deal, Rudy?"

"You got it."

The three friends toasted each other with their coffee mugs, feeling relaxed and content together until Jaime made a comment that brought tension to their voices as well as their nerves.

"So, did they arm you, too?" she asked Rudy.

"Yes."

"Are you actually carrying it with you?"

Rudy frowned slightly. "We have to – that's the whole point."

Steve raised an eyebrow at her; he'd assumed this battle was over. Jaime shrugged. "Well, I proved I can use one, and I took one because I had no choice. But I am _not _gonna carry it."

"Yes...you are," Steve said, gently but very firmly. Jaime met his eyes directly, challenging him. "Not because Oscar or the Secretary says so," he told her. "I want you to do it – for me."

"That's not fair."

"Kids," Rudy began, rising to his feet, "I'll let you work this one out in private."

"Don't go Rudy; we'll behave," Jaime promised. "For now..."

"Actually, I have an early breakfast meeting tomorrow, so I need to make an early night of it. But I'm sure I'll see you soon."

As Rudy drove back toward his OSI-provided LA apartment, he was whistling with happiness for his two friends. They seemed truly happy together, and if they weren't exactly where'd they'd been before Jaime's amnesia, he had every confidence they'd get there soon enough. Their little squabble about the gun had no chance of separating two people with a bond that powerful. Rudy had known as soon as he'd been told about the new 'arm everyone' policy that if anyone were to have a serious problem with it, Jaime was the most likely holdout. He also knew that if anyone could make her change her mind, it would be Steve. His fondest hope was that he'd need to rent a tux in the near future, to attend their wedding.

Rudy had just begun whistling 'Here Comes the Bride' when he rounded a sharp curve in the road and a car came seemingly out of nowhere and rammed his front passenger door. He tapped his brakes, regained control and kept going, but a second shove from the offending vehicle caused him to spin out and land in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. He remained safely in his car with the doors locked as the other car sped away, then he got out, unhurt, to inspect the damage.

Before he had time to react, another assailant moved silently and quickly toward him from the cover of the underbrush. Rudy felt a cloud of fine mist hitting him from behind, and he whirled around, inhaling the caustic chemical. He didn't even get a glimpse of his attacker before everything went black.

- - - - - -


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Jaime was roused from deep sleep very early the next morning by the doorbell and loud, urgent knocking at her front door. She opened one eye halfway, saw that the clock read 6:45 and pulled the pillow over her head, hoping whoever it was would see the error of their ways and disappear before she became fully awake. The knocking only grew more insistent, and she reluctantly threw back the covers and pulled on her robe before padding not-so-lightly down the hall to give the offender a good piece of her mind.

When she saw Steve on the doorstep, Jaime stopped and blinked in confusion. She could read on his face the prelude to a story she knew she wouldn't like, and when she saw Oscar's grim countenance over Steve's shoulder, she felt the icy grip of fear and began to tremble as she opened the door. "What's wrong?" she queried, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

"I'll make coffee while Oscar fills you in," Steve said without greeting or preamble. He made his way into Jaime's kitchen while Jaime and Oscar seated themselves in the living room.

"A few hours ago," Oscar began, "a government car was found facing the wrong way in a ditch about ten miles from here. It was apparently forced off the road, and the driver was gone. The plates traced back to the OSI – a 'loaner' car, used by out of state employees with business in the area." He paused, wondering if Jaime was awake enough to absorb what he was saying.

"And...?" she prompted, knowing there was more.

"Babe, it was Rudy's car."

"No..." She felt Steve's comforting hand on her shoulder.

"The good news is, there was no sign of a struggle," Steve told her softly, "and no blood or any indication he was hurt. He may have left the car there and gone for help."

Jaime shook her head. "It must've happened on his way back to the hotel last night. Nobody's heard from him since then?" The men's faces answered her question. "Is the car drive-able?"

"One of our agents drove it back to Headquarters," Oscar told her. "The keys were still in the ignition."

"We'll find him, Sweetheart," Steve said, gently rubbing Jaime's shoulders for a moment before turning back toward the kitchen to fetch the fresh-brewed coffee.

"We don't have time for coffee," Jaime insisted, immediately on her feet and wide awake. "We have to find him _now._"

- - - - - -

Rudy woke up very slowly. It didn't help that he opened his eyes to total darkness. The floor beneath him was smooth metal, and as he attempted to stand up, he banged his head on more metal, less than five feet from the floor. His hands reached out and also touched metal – bars surrounded him on all sides, little more than an arm's length away in any direction. He sat down, having no other choice, to contemplate his situation, but didn't have very long to think in silence.

Blindingly bright light flashed on all around him, and while he still couldn't see, Rudy was no longer in darkness.

"Hello, Doctor Wells," a woman's voice purred from somewhere out in the light. "I must assure you that you are in no danger – at least, not yet."

"Don't you have the courage to let me see who you are?" Rudy spat back.

"Perhaps you will. I'll think about it. In the meantime, I have a request to make of you." Through her dark glasses, Jacqueline could see the physician glaring at her with fury in his light-blinded eyes. "I've heard quite a lot about you; you're a scientific genius. I've decided I need to see that genius for myself. Who are the two humans you have turned into cyborgs? Once you've given me that knowledge, you will be re-sedated and left right back where we found you – a free man."

Rudy shook his head in total disbelief. Did she really think he'd willingly give her Steve or Jaime?

"No?" She smiled, even though he couldn't see it. "I'm sure you'll change your mind." She hit a switch, and Rudy felt the cage being jerked upward. "Your little room is constructed with a copper plate on the top, for the ultimate in electrical conduction. Every hour that you refuse to accommodate my request, you will be raised another foot or two toward the ceiling, where a second plate is waiting to send lightening bolts straight into your metal cage and all through your body. You will not know until you reach it how close you are to that second plate, but when you get there, you won't suffer...for _too _long!" She laughed softly. "Think about that good and hard, and I'll see you in an hour."

Just as suddenly the woman had appeared, Rudy was alone once again, and the lights went out, leaving him to the darkness of the message she'd just given him.

- - - - - -


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

After getting Oscar's phone call, Russ began rallying teams of Los Angeles operatives. One group was assigned to tear apart the car, bit by tiny bit, to find any sort of a lead. Five more groups were assigned to comb the hillsides surrounding the ditch where the car had been found and (they assumed) where Rudy had been grabbed. They didn't know whether they'd find a clue or – God forbid – a body, but Russ instructed them not to return without something to go on.

Russ (and every agent in each of his teams) was ready to go...and fully armed.

- - - - - -

Jaime, Steve and Oscar joined the teams on the hillside. Steve began scanning the area for things no one else would be able to see, while Jaime very quietly moved off on her own, listening. She frowned as she heard a heavy, metallic _thunk_ that seemed to come from within the hill itself, but as quickly as she'd heard it, the sound was gone.

Steve noticed, and was instantly at her side. "What is it?"

Jaime listened for a few more moments before answering. "I heard a weird noise, but it's gone now."

"Where?"

Jaime turned and pointed directly at the center of the face of the hill, behind them.

- - - - - -

Rudy was beginning to suffer from sensory deprivation and exhaustion. The lights went out following his fifth refusal to give up the names they were seeking, and he was plunged back into dark, ominous silence as his cage took its fifth jump toward the ceiling. He wondered how many hours it would be before he reached the top. He'd received basic interrogation-resistance training through the OSI, but there was nothing for him to resist, really. Each hour, the blinding lights flashed on, he stayed silent, and he took one more step toward...electrocution. Far from wanting to resist, he was beginning to wish they'd just get it over with.

- - - - - -

Oscar joined them a few minutes later. "I just got a call from Hansen at the NSB," he said urgently. "When he heard where Rudy was last seen, he jumped on a plane; he's on his way here right now."

"Oscar," Jaime wondered, "what's going on? Does he know something?"

"That'd be a first," Steve grumbled.

"He just might," Oscar confirmed. "It seems the NSB has an old, abandoned lab, somewhere in this hill."

"_In _the hill?" Jaime's eyes grew wide as she grasped Steve's hand. "That's where the sound came from!" She and Steve headed for the top of the hill with Oscar close behind, and Jaime patted her jacket pocket, relieved that this time, just like Steve and Oscar, she had a gun.

When they reached the top, Steve continued searching while Jaime strained to hear any sounds to indicate life or activity below them. One hour – to the minute – after she's heard the first noise, it happened again.

_Thunk!, _followed by _**Thunk!**_

- - - - - -

Rudy's mind was working at bionic speed. When the lights came on, he had a plan. "I'll tell you who you're looking for," he said, making himself sound wearier and much more emotionally beaten than he really was, "but I want to look you in the face when I tell you."

His tormentor laughed softly. "Brilliant strategy, Doctor. Why would I show you who I am – so you can identify me once you've been freed?"

"Come on; we both know that's not likely to happen," Rudy sighed. "I'll tell you, and then you'll kill me anyway. I'm not stupid, and neither are you." Her silence told Rudy that she was listening. "I've spent more than enough time hanging here, and I'll tell you their names, just as soon as you tone the lights down a little bit so I can see who I'm talking to. Then you can shoot me, or whatever it is you plan to do next, and we'll all be done with this."

"Alright, Doctor Wells, we'll do it your way – for now."

Rudy held his breath as the blinding lights began to dim, then he exhaled in a burst of shock when he saw the woman standing beneath him, in the doorway. "Oh my God...Jacquie! It's...you?"

"Surprised? You shouldn't be. I was supposed to be by your side when you created your cyborgs. The NSB had every right to put me in there, and you saw to it that I was reduced to a status lower than your own nurse, Lynda. I'm not a damned nurse, Rudy; I'm a scientist. And now I'm on the verge of performing the experiments that will give me my own scientific breakthrough. So...who are your cyborgs?"

"Go to Hell."

"Now, that's not very nice. It's also the wrong answer." She turned off all of the lights as she gave the switch to raise the cage a double hit. "Now you're two feet closer. Not much longer, Doctor Wells."

Once again, Rudy was alone in the darkness.

- - - - - -


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Rudy braced himself, knowing the ceiling with its promised massive jolt of electricity, was not much further away. He exhaled, almost disappointed, when nothing happened. He'd reached the point where he was now hoping to hit it as an escape from the emotional torture. He reached down toward his ankle and touched the gun still firmly ensconced in his sock; they hadn't found it. Very careless on their part, he thought, but in total darkness or absolute light, he had no chance to aim it and fire.

Briefly, he considered using it to end his own torment. He'd be killed soon, and this way he'd be choosing his own time and means, but the kind old doctor couldn't fathom the possibility of taking a life – _any_ life – not even his own.

- - - - - -

"It's right below us!" Jaime told Oscar, "and the sound is coming closer!"

"I can't find an entrance," Steve said, joining them. "Damn it, we have to get in there!"

"That's why Jack is coming," Oscar explained. "He'll help us -"

"Rudy might not have time to wait for Jack!" Jaime exclaimed. In an uncharacteristic fit of temper, she kicked a very large rock that was a few feet away. The rock moved aside, not because of her bionic kick, but because it wasn't a real rock. "Steve, Oscar...I think I found it."

She had definitely found _something. _A hole in the ground, large enough to step into, tunneled deep into the side of the hill. Steve threw a protective arm around Jaime's waist, to prevent her from diving right in. She pulled against his restraint, thinking only of getting to Rudy.

"Steve! Let go of me!"

"And let you run straight through those infra-red sensors? I don't think so."

"Huh?"

Steve pulled her gently but firmly away from the entrance. "It's a trap, Sweetheart. Those sensors probably trigger something, but even if they don't, they'll set off some kind of alarm. You'd not only get Rudy killed, but probably yourself, too."

"But I don't see...oh." Sometimes Jaime forgot about Steve's 'extra' vision.

At the same moment, Jack Hansen came running up the hill. "Stop! Don't go in there!" he panted, stopping near the fake rock. "It's booby-trapped."

Steve nodded unhappily. "We just figured that out."

"There's gotta be another entrance," Jaime theorized.

"There is," Hansen confirmed, "but it isn't here. Go in that way, and you're fried to dust in 1.5 seconds." He saw Jaime's face blanch to a ghostly shade, and realized that had almost just happened. "The real entrance is about a mile away, on the other side. Come on – I'll show you."

"Just tell us," Jaime pleaded. "Steve and I can get there faster on our own."

"Alright; down the road, going north from the other side of the hill, you'll find a small, abandoned graveyard. Inside the caretaker's shed, you'll find a door that opens to a stairway. _That's _how you get in. But be careful; whoever went to this much trouble isn't going to take kindly to intruders. We'll be right behind you."

Jaime looked into Steve's eyes for a split-second, then with no words necessary between them, they both took off at top speed. Oscar and Hansen each turned on a datacom and called for all available back-up, then drew their weapons and ran toward the graveyard.

- - - - - -

Rudy was beginning to doze out of sheer exhaustion when a piercing, siren-like sound blasted him back to awareness. Minutes later, he was blinded once again as the floodlights came on; his tormentor had returned.

"It appears they're looking for you, Doctor Wells," she said harshly.

"Did you really think they wouldn't?" Rudy retorted.

"Unfortunately for them, they found the wrong entrance. Whoever climbed in there with thoughts of heroic glory has been reduced to not much more than a pile of ashes."

Rudy's heart sank. Was it Steve? Oscar? ...Jaime? Or was it possible she was bluffing, playing another cruel mind game with him?

Jacqueline laughed. "Of course, that means you'll have to pay the price for their stupidity." Without another word, she hit the switch to make the cage jump once more, then turned out the lights and was gone.

Rudy could tell from the smaller arc the cage swung in that his time was growing very short. There would probably only be one more visit from his former scientific cohort before he reached the ceiling. One way or another, it was almost over.

- - - - - -

Jaime heard another _thunk _just as she and Steve reached the shed. Her heart pounded wildly, knowing instinctively that it meant Rudy was enduring something terrible. The shed door was locked and braced heavily from the inside, but she and Steve – automatically working as a single unit – gave it a simultaneous kick and were headed down the stairway before the dust had a chance to settle.

- - - - - -


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Jacqueline was reclining comfortably on a chaise lounge in her office, drinking lemonade and savoring her impending victory when the lights began to flash, strobe-like, at bionic speed, through the lab, the office and the other rooms of the small complex. She was already on her feet when the two assistants who had grabbed Rudy rushed in.

"The main entrance has been breached, Ma'am," one of them said breathlessly. He and his partner ducked as Jacqueline threw her glass at them, causing it to smash against the door frame and land in shards, ice cubes and lemon pulp at their feet.

"I figured that out when the lights started blinking, Imbecile!"

"The live feed should be active in the lab, if you -"

"Then why the hell are you wasting time here?" she snapped. "If our visitors are who I think they are," she continued as they moved down the hall toward the lab (and Rudy), they may have played their last card, straight into our hands. In any case, with security breached, we'll have to terminate the prisoner." She and her assistants readied their guns as they reached the side door to the lab.

- - - - - -

Oscar and Jack reached the entrance less than five minutes after Steve and Jaime had gone into the complex, but found a heavy metal door now blocked the stairway and kept them from getting inside. "How big is this place?" Oscar asked.

"Not very – there's the main lab, two smaller labs, a master office and a couple of storage rooms," Jack told him.

"Any other way in?"

"No. But the hallway from here to the complex is fairly long, so if we can get a demo crew in here, we can blast the door open and hopefully not hit anyone."

"Or we could do this." Oscar drew his weapon and fired three shots into the locking mechanisms of the door, then reached through the opening where the handle had been and easily pulled the door open. There was no sign of Jaime, Steve or Rudy. The lights were blinking wildly, making navigating even the straight hallway difficult.

"Dammit!" Oscar swore, becoming disoriented. "Steve and Jaime could get through without the lights – probably better – and it'd give them an advantage. Where's the main breaker?" Silently, Hansen pointed the way.

Jaime and Steve froze briefly as they were plunged into pitch blackness. Jaime grabbed Steve's arm. "Ok, I'm the ears, and you're the eyes; they're straight ahead. Lead on, Colonel," she whispered.

"There's a lab straight ahead. I can see the bottom of something – I think it's a cage – I'm betting Rudy's up there. Let's go."

"I don't think so," a voice snarled, and Jaime felt Steve being wrenched violently away from her.

"Get Rudy!" Steve told her urgently. Jaime was already heading into the lab. Steve made his way there, too, dragging his potential captors with him as they continued to grip his arms. He swung his right arm around to hit one man with the other, and dropped them both to the floor, just as Jaime reached a point directly under the cage. "Ok, Jaime," he said in a voice so soft that only she could hear him, "straight up."

He glanced around the lab, and saw that in the darkness, Jacqueline had edged over to a large switch on a wall. Jaime leaped high into the air and curled her fingers around the bottom edge of the cage. While holding on tightly with her left hand, she reached up with her right to bend and then break the bars. Steve's eyes were drawn away from Jaime and Rudy by the laughter of the woman at the switch.

"Nice job, cyborgs. Too bad you didn't know this is the one switch not connected to the main breaker. Your little friend up there can fry along with your doctor."

"Don't move, Lady," Hansen called, as he and Oscar finally made their way into the lab.

"I'd just as soon shoot you as arrest you."

The guns were all in place, those required (Oscar, Hansen, Rudy and Steve's) and those intent on profit at any cost (Rivera and her two cronies'). Jaime was too busy to even think about hers. Seven fingers moved onto seven triggers, but only one was the first.

_**BANG!**_

The only sound that followed was of two bodies thudding softly to the floor, then everything happened at once. The lights came on and Russ and his teams came thundering down the hallway into the lab. Jacqueline released a loud, angry string of words as she slumped against the wall, clutching her bleeding hand and staring at the pieces of wire that remained where the switch had been. Steve smiled with satisfaction at his ability to hit a target in the dark. He'd been aiming for the switch, to shoot it in the opposite direction of _On_; he couldn't help that her hand was in the way. Oscar and Hansen stood over Jacqueline while Russ and his men rounded up the two assistants, and Steve moved swiftly to embrace Jaime, as she set Rudy down safely on his own two, unharmed, feet.

- - - - - -


	8. Epilogue

Epilogue

Jaime leaned happily into the warmth of Steve's arms while Oscar had his driver take all three of them to the hospital where Rudy was being checked over.

"You came awfully close to..." Steve began, but found he couldn't finish the thought. He held Jaime a little closer, thankful to have her still there – and still ok.

"Being french-fried," Jaime said for him, not laughing. "I know."

"That was the best teamwork I've ever witnessed," Oscar told them both.

"Jaime did the hard stuff," Steve pointed out. "Doubt I could've stopped her if I'd wanted to, though."

"And I did it," she said triumphantly "_without a gun_."

Oscar nodded. "Point well taken."

"And? You'll find a way to exempt me from that policy now?"

"I'll...give it my fullest consideration."

"Might be best to listen to her," Steve kidded, kissing Jaime's cheek. "This is one tough lady."

Jaime grinned. "And I'm tough..." she prompted.

The two most important men in her life glanced at each other and answered in perfect unison: "_**Without a gun**_!"

- - - - - -


End file.
